Albanian Foreign Policy: Regional Cooperation and European Integration Albanian Foreign Policy: Regional Cooperation and European Integration Eno Trimçev Albania is the country that has taken longest to negotiate a Stabilisation and Association Agreement(SAA). That arduous process was marred by corruption in governance, inept negotiations and a general lack of vision about how to get the country where everyone agreed it should go: the European Union. The socialist administrations were generally content to rest on their laurels thinking that their power was secure because neither the international community nor the Albanian voters could stomach a return to power of Mr. Berisha’s democrats after the 1997 implosion under Berisha’s authoritarian watch. Eventually, they were proved to be wrong. Albanians brought Berisha back into power in the elections of June 2005 and there are indications that the higher echelons of the political system are starting to open up and accept a new and more motivated class of leaders. Mr. Berisha’s governing Democratic Party is not as monolithic as it used to be although it has a long way to go to pass its first true test: a rotation in its own leadership. On the other hand, the Socialist Party carried out its rotation when Mr. Rama took over after the resignation of Mr. Nano in September 2005. Despite internal challenges, Mr. Rama has solidified his position within the party. While one can be pessimistic about the slow progress of the integration process, Albania’s position is not all gloom and doom. The country has had a robust to moderate economic growth in the last fifteen years. Its political system, after collapsing under the strain of authoritarianism and armed revolt in 1997, has bounced back and proved the remarkable capacity to absorb the great challenges that followed—the Kosovo war, a very tumultuous opposition by Mr. Berisha, and the internal reform of the Socialist Party. The country is united in its goal of European integration and harbours no deep-seated animosity towards its neighbours. In regional cooperation initiatives it has consistently followed an active cooperative policy that has earned it the praise of its international partners. It is, therefore, well positioned to close the long transition process and take advantage of regional initiatives. However, frustration is mounting with visa regimes that are becoming increasingly more difficult to negotiate—Macedonia announced in January 2008 that it was going to scrap the entry visa regime and adopt a more European system. Add to this the lack of cultural common ground with the other countries of the Western Balkans and a general indifference to Albanian proposals in regional forums, and you can see how in Tirana there is an understanding that regional cooperation depends wholly on international arbiters be they from Brussels or Washington. 106 Foreign Policy Review-godina 3, broj 3